Mesopotamia
The ____________________ sweeps its way across Southwest Asia. Today this river valley lies mostly in the country of Iraq.
What is the Fertile Crescent?
Sumerian lives depended on natural forces they could not control. The people ____________________ hundreds of gods, who they believed could control these forces.
What is worshipped?
Sargon the Great was an ancient Mesopotamian ____________________ who has inspired stories for nearly 4,500 years.
What is ruler?
The ____________________ were a people of northern Mesopotamia who developed a culture different than Babylon's. A strong agricultural economy and a large professional army helped the ____________________ conquer all of Mesopotamia and some surrounding lands by 650 B.C.
Who are Assyrians?
The narrow strip of coast along the eastern Mediterranean contained many natural resources and had good harbors. About 1000 B.C., independent ____________________ emerged in the area. The Greeks called the people from these ____________________ Phoenicians. Their most important export was their culture.
What are city-states?
Historians call the flat, fertile river valley that was found mostly in modern-day Iraq ____________________, which means “land between the rivers.”
What is Mesopotamia?
____________________ were powerful leaders in Sumerian society. They were responsible for conducting religious practices at the ziggurat, a huge pyramid-shaped temple.
Who are priests?
Sargon the Great's conquests created the world’s first empire, a group of different lands and people ____________________ by one ruler.
What is governed?
In time, however, the Assyrian Empire grew too big, and its subjects became tired of being treated unfairly and violently. This led to internal power struggles that made it possible for a people known as the ____________________ to eventually defeat them.
Who are Chaldeans?
The Phoenicians were also skilled shipbuilders and sailors. They built strong, wide ships. These ships carried huge ____________________ thousands of miles.
What are cargoes?
As farming thrived in the Fertile Crescent, populations grew and cities ____________________.
What is developed?
Sumerians invented the earliest form of ____________________, known as pictographs, or images of objects.
What is writing?
Sargon the Great's powerful empire brought prosperity to his people and encouraged trade. Despite Sargon’s abilities, it became too big to ____________________, and by 2200 B.C., the Akkadian Empire had come to an end.
What is control?
After overthrowing the Assyrians in 612 B.C., the Chaldeans became the ruling power over all of Mesopotamia. Nebuchadnezzar II was their most ____________________ king and ruled for 43 years.
What is famous?
The Phoenicians performed a valuable service by spreading different ____________________ from one area to another.
What are cultures?
Around 3500 B.C., Mesopotamia’s first ____________________ arose in Sumer, an area in the southern part of the Fertile Crescent.
What is civilization?
Detailed pictographs evolved into symbols called cuneiform, which, over time, represented ____________________ rather than objects.
What are sounds?
After the fall the Akkadian Empire, a tribe called the Amorites invaded western Mesopotamia around 2000 B.C. They established their ____________________ at Babylon.
What is capital?
Though he was often cruel, Nebuchadnezzar also made improvements to Babylon by adding incredible beauty to it. His most famous accomplishment was the Hanging ____________________ of Babylon.
What are gardens?
The region of Persia was located in what is present-day southwestern Iran, just east of Mesopotamia. Around 700 B.C., the Persians were ruled by a people called the Medes. Then in 550 B.C., a Persian king known as Cyrus the Great led a successful ____________________ against the Medes.
What is uprising?
Sumer was made up of a dozen advanced, self-governing ____________________, each of which included the city and its surrounding lands and settlements.
What are city-states?
Then in 1792 B.C., Hammurabi became the sixth king of Babylon. He was Babylon’s most influential and powerful ruler. He is best remembered for his Code of ____________________. To help unite his empire, he took the best existing ____________________, added new rules, and organized them into a clear, written system.
What are laws?
Cyrus continued to add to his empire until it stretched from Afghanistan to the Aegean Sea. Under Persian rule, these lands enjoyed 200 years of peace and economic well-being. The secret of his success was tolerance, or ____________________ for the beliefs and practices of others.
What is sympathy?